I’ve tried to cut back on regurgitating music-related news from other blogs, but this is a matter of life and death — SoundExchange, an organization that collects and distributes digital music royalties, has just published a list of artists who they owe royalties to, but cannot locate. Check this musical Amber Alert and keep an eye out at the grocery store or the airport for such obscure artists as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Booker T and the MGs and Public Enemy. Where the hell could they be?!?!?

OK, to be fair, the good people at Boing Boing spun this one a bit — these artists aren’t missing, although some of them are dead or just very obscure — they simply haven’t yet registered with SoundExchange, and they’ve got money on the table. If they’re not registered, there’s nowhere to send the fat checks. Hence the list.

But still: why aren’t these artists (or their management) signing up? Is the money not good enough to cover the ink and stamps? Are they suspicious of SoundExchange for some reason? Are they keeping their distance since it was originally an offshoot of the grandmother- and corpse-suing RIAA? Any artist or manager with at least a room-temperature IQ knows that the paperwork to collect all these publishing/performance checks is well worth the effort. It’s your money, take it! If you don’t, they’ll give it to Michael Jackson. (This is important even if you’re a little guy/gal — I paid for a nice trip to Japan with one such check.)

Anyway, you might want to check the list and see if you’re on it. I’m curious to see how much revenue they’re collecting for the average band…